After 34 years of Final Fours, controversial broadcaster is out
Miami Herald Jul 14, 08 11:57 AM CDT
(Newser)
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For the first time in 34 years, Billy Packer won’t be calling the Final Four, the Miami Herald reports. CBS won’t renew the 68-year-old’s year-to-year contract, an exec confirmed, but will replace Packer with veteran announcer Clark Kellogg. Packer has been a controversy magnet, most famously for calling Allen Iverson “a tough monkey” in 1996.
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Olson calls NBA rule "farce," plans to push for changes benefiting college basketball
Los Angeles Times Jul 11, 08 2:55 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Lute Olson is sick of an NBA rule that results in top basketball prospects spending just one year in college, the Los Angeles Times reports, and says he'll no longer recruit such players for his University of Arizona program. Olson, who's seen the rule cost Arizona two top players this spring alone, calls it a "farce" and say he'll push for changes.
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Relationship ends amid allegations of NCAA policy abuse
Los Angeles Times May 23, 08 1:50 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Former USC guard OJ Mayo has cut ties with agent Calvin Andrews. The decision comes less than two weeks after allegations he violated NCAA rules by accepting cash donations while in high school and college. "Due to the overwhelming intensity of recent allegations regarding the recruitment of OJ Mayo, we feel that our representation of him is a distraction," Andrews said in a statement.
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Programs with poor graduation rates face sanctions
USA Today May 6, 08 5:02 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The NCAA has handed out sanctions to more than 200 college teams for poor academic performance, USA Today reports. More than a third of the 329 Division I schools had teams with subpar Academic Progress Rates, which means their players' graduation rate was lower than 60%. Twenty-six teams deemed chronic underperformers still face reductions in practice time and scholarship awards.
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Longtime Blue Devils assistant takes over after Johnson leaves
Associated Press Apr 26, 08 5:56 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Johnny Dawkins, a longtime assistant coach at Duke, has been hired as Stanford's new men's basketball coach. Dawkins replaces Pac-10 Coach of the Year Trent Johnson, who left for LSU earlier this month, two people close to the situation said today. Both people requested anonymity because Stanford had not made an official announcement, which could come as soon as Monday.
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march madness
Fans implore NBA prospects to return during largest fete in Lawrence history
Associated Press Apr 13, 08 9:37 PM CDT
(Newser)
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In possibly the biggest celebration in the city's history, a crowd estimated at more than 100,000 lined Lawrence's streets Sunday to honor the national basketball champion Kansas Jayhawks. Fans from as far away as Colorado and Minnesota, some in trees and on rooftops, came to get a glimpse of the team that beat Memphis to win the NCAA championship.
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North Carolina junior sweeps MVP awards; Parker takes women's honor
Associated Press Apr 12, 08 8:06 PM CDT
(Newser)
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He already earned an armful, but Tyler Hansbrough took one last bit of brass Friday night. The North Carolina junior won the John R. Wooden Award as college basketball's top player, giving him essentially a sweep of the season's individual honors, including The Associated Press college basketball player of the year award. "It means a lot," said Hansbrough, who finished fifth in the voting for the award last year.
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Jayhawks coach is happy where he is... right?
Kansas City Star Apr 9, 08 1:18 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Kansas Jayhawks coach Bill Self has a lot of leverage now that he's taken his team to the national championship, but he's being uncharacteristically vague in answering rumors of an obscenely generous job offer from his alma mater Oklahoma State. Joe Posnanski speculates in the Kansas City Star as to why the usually direct Self isn't simply saying "no" to OSU.
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March Madness
Tennessee downs Stanford 64-48 to win school's eighth title
The Tennessean Apr 8, 08 11:56 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Tennessee’s 64-48 victory over Stanford in the national championship game was won in an unusual way for the Lady Vols: they did it with defense. Coach Pat Summit employed a press to slow down the Cardinal’s potent offense and bring back-to-back titles to Tennessee, according to the Tennessean . It is the second time the Lady Vols have repeated as champions.
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March Madness
With Auriemma out, Summitt is focused on game
New York Times Apr 8, 08 12:38 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Pat Summitt's feud with Geno Auriemma won't be settled on the basketball court this year, now that his Huskies are out of the NCAA Women's Tournament. And unless both UConn and Summitt's Lady Vols make it to the Final Four next year, the quarrelling coaches won't be meeting any time soon. Which is just how Summitt wants it, Times columnist Harvey Araton reports.
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March Madness
The Tigers had only just begun to believe they could make it
Commercial Appeal (Memphis) Apr 8, 08 12:36 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Memphis coach John Calipari had told his team's fans to "Expect good things to happen," and they did. Chris Douglas-Roberts and Derrick Rose knew their Tigers had the chance to snatch the NCAA crown away from Kansas, and for a while it looked like they would. Instead, the Commercial Appeal finds itself writing an elegy to a team that could have.
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Riley, Vitale, Dantley among others honored
Associated Press Apr 7, 08 9:51 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Dick Vitale cried when he heard he was selected to basketball’s Hall of Fame. The former NBA coach turned college basketball analyst joins Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and Pat Riley, among others, in the Class of 2008. "I can't run, can't jump, can't shoot, but just have had a tremendous…passion about the game," said Vitale, according to the Associated Press.
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